A Visit to Western Railway Exhibition on Indian Railways' 158th Birthday

A week full of hectic work had just come to an end. I was doing an 8.30 am shift in office. When I reached Dombivali station to catch a CST Mumbai Slow local of 06:52 hrs, accidentally met Abhishek Tamhankar waiting for the same train. While we were commuting to work, we discussed the normal stuff a Railfan is known to do. That’s when we decided to go & visit the Western Railway (WR) exhibition on the 158th Birthday of Indian Railways (IR). Accordingly, we informed other Railfans. Many of them had prior commitments, so couldn’t make it except, Karthik Gopalan, Mohit Tandel & Sekharan Sir.

Yours truly and Abhishek Tamhankar were supposed to take the 10.57 CSTM local from Pf 2 at Dombivali. The 10:57 local was a 9 car Jessop rake. We occupied a window seat facing the fast tracks. We saw the Howrah-Mumbai Mail speeding past us on fast tracks behind a WCAM3. We had a close look at the earthwork on the Kalva Side of the twin tunnels of the slow tracks. As we were joining the fast tracks near Thane outer, saw a WCAM3 with Sewagram Express grinding to halt. It was made to halt at Thane outer as Chhapra Express from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) was negotiating a 10kmph turnout out of Thane Pf 7. As we came to a halt on Pf 4, we saw a fast MRVC EMU waiting on Pf 5, followed by another fast MRVC EMU on the south end of the station on the down fast line.

The simple inference out of these observations is that, Central Railway (CR) has managed to shift the traffic congestion from Vidyavihar(VVH) to Thane(TNA), because the benefits of commissioning of the 5th-6th lines haven’t accrued as exit of Pf 7 still continues to be a painful 10kmph. We had a parallel run with Gyaneshwari Express on 6th line. We also spotted the LHB SG coaches bound for Gorakhpur from LTT on 5th line between Kanjurmarg and Bhandup. As we were about to reach VVH, a WDM3D hauled Netravathi Express was making its way out of LTT on 5th line. A lot of rail personnel were working on connecting the freight lines to the new 5th-6th lines. Then between Sion & Dadar we had parallel run with incoming Jabalpur Garibrath, which had 15 3-Tier AC coaches with 78 seat configuration and 2 EOGs. We won the race as it was made to wait at Dadar outer.

As we were approaching Byculla, we saw Sahyadri Express negotiating a turnout from a loop line of Chinchpokli sidings to enter up fast UP line, which meant, it was put on the loop for an overtake. There were 2 AC pantry cars of Northern Railway, just behind the WCAM3 loco. One of the pantry cars was in the standard Yellow-Red Livery, whereas the other one had the Chalo-Kerala Livery. What was it doing here, is a question we will have to investigate. Maybe a replacement or spare for the LTT-Haridwar AC Superfast! As we got down at CSTM on Pf 5, we ran towards the Pf 7 to capture the twin AC pantry cars. There were a lot of RPF personnel waiting near the entrance of Pf7, so we had to point and shoot from a point near the ATM stalls. The Train Management System (TMS) was supposed to be inaugurated on 16th April, so there were a few rail officials making their way in and out of the new TMS building constructed on Pf 7.

I had to renew by Season ticket, so made by way to the ticket counter. Surprisingly, there was no line and I managed to buy the season ticket in 2 minutes. We ventured out and took a BEST BUS 138 to Churchgate. Got down at the EROS Cinema Signal, took the subway to reach the Main Concourse. That’s where we met Karthik Gopalan, Mohit Tandel and Sekharan Sir. The exhibition area wasn’t very big. There were 2 LCD screens at the entrance and 2 vertical sliders depicting the glorious years of Indian railways. The focus certainly was on BB & CI railways. Then, there were many old B & W pictures of WP and WG steam locos hauling passengers & freights. Bassein Bridge, Mahalaxmi Station, Mumbai Central, Bandra and Churchgate station pictures were also on display. Then the 6 car, 8 car , 12 car & finally 15 car rake pictures were on display. A replica of the Bandra Terminus & Churchgate with glass façade was on display.

The most important part of the exhibition was a model train loop with miniature working models of Plasser, Rajdhani , Duranto, etc along with a TGV France rake. It operated on 12 V DC current and landscaping included 2 platforms, a dual track tunnel, siding lines and two 180 deg curves. The kids watching the models were all gung-ho about the action on the miniature section. I did manage to capture a few videos and finally decided to call it a day. As I was doing an afternoon shift at office, took a cab and reached office, whereas Abhishek left for Dombivali.

In Pursuit Of Realization Of A Dream On A Hot Summer Day

Inauguration and Commissioning of the New 5th-6th Lines between Lokmanya Tilak Terminus(LTT) and Thane(TNA) was scheduled for 10th April 2011 and the Railfan in me ensured that I had timed my weekly off to be a witness to it. There 's hardly been a day in the past decade where I hadn't thought of this day when Central Railway(CR) finally segregates Mail/Express and Fast Local trains.

The megablock was initially announced for 3rd April 2011 which eventually got postponed to 10th April 2011 due to varied reasons like Vikhroli agitation for FOB, World Cup Security, modifications to correct the Loop line End Buffers.(Some true stories and some not so true stories). Anyways, on Friday, the 8th, traffic block was announced in all the leading newspapers for 10th April between 00:30 and 15:30 hrs. I coaxed my colleague in office to come to work so that I could take an Off and be witness to the inauguration. I decided to do an Afternoon shift in office based at CST Mumbai, so that while returning back from work, I could take a peek at the start of the traffic block at Vidyavihar(VVH) in the early morning hours.

Left office at 23:30, took a delayed running 23:40 Ambarnath Slow local which left at 23:50.I placed myself besides a window facing the east in a Kalyan End 1st Class Coach. We started crawling after Dadar. I could spot the Dadar-Sawantwadi Special waiting for departure on platform no 4. The crawl continued till Ghatkopar. As we approached Vidyavihar, I was glued to the window as the whole of India was on the 2nd of April to M S Dhoni's mesmerizing innings in the World Cup Final. As we halted at VVH, the last train out of LTT, the LTT-Hatia Express was negotiating the turnouts to enter the down fast lines at a sedate speed. The complete area was brightly lit up like a stadium with almost 300 railway personnel awaiting orders to commence work. I reached home by 01:15 and decided to hit the sack ASAP in anticipation of a eventful day ahead.

At 10:00 am, Vijay Aravamudhan, informed that Deep Soni was witnessing the presence of a lot of Media men at VVH and track work seemed to be in final stages. After a few consultations, we were informed that the first train out of LTT would certainly be Godan Express which was rescheduled for a 15:40 Departure. I decided to catch up with Vijay at TNA by 14:20 and then proceed to VVH. Accordingly left home at 13:20 and took a delayed 13:28 slow to CSTM from platform 3. At Kopar spotted the Push-Pull DMU hauled by a KYN WDM in the middle. The DMU and my MRVC AC-DC local had a short parallel run upto Diva. Eventually, we won as the DMU had to negotiate a few turnouts. I got down at Thane pf 4 at 14:00. I had another 20 minutes to spare, hence decided to venture to the island platforms 7 & 8 to see if anything was happening on the platform, which would soon see a lot of traffic. As I went down the stairs of the FOB, 13201 Rajendra Nagar -LTT express was languishing on Pf 8. I walked the length of the platform to see WCAM3 #21961 as its power. The presence of a lot of RPF personnel meant, I couldn't take snaps. In all probability, this would have been the first train to take the 6th New line to LTT. When I was at the Mulund end of the platform, a Vishakapatnam bound Express hauled by the offlink WDG4 12126 was coming to a dual halt on Pf 5 at Thane.It had started from Dadar today and given a special halt at Thane for the convenience of passengers.

There were repetitive announcement of Mangalore bound Matsyagandha Express being rescheduled to depart from Panvel. Passengers were urged to take a local to Panvel using their long distance tickets. There was also an announcement of Ratnagiri-Dadar passenger being short terminated at a Diva and rescheduled to depart for Ratnagiri from Diva. Vijay asked me to check the Speed Restrictions on the turnouts of Pf7,8 at the KYN end. Pf 7 had a 10 kmph exit and a 20 kmph entry. While pf 8 had a 30 kmph entry. This 10 kmph exit out of pf 7 has to be upgraded to 30 kmph to ensure a smooth exit from new lines into the down fast track ahead of thane to avoid bottleneck situations in future. In the meanwhile, Mahanagari Express bound for CSTM hauled by a WCAM3 # 21934 entered pf 7 and left after 5 minutes.

Finally met Vijay and we boarded the last coach of a CST bound MRVC AC-DC rake. After Mulund, we spotted as many as 4 empty rakes stabled with WCAM3's and WCAG1. In a split second decision, we decided to get down at Nahur and capture this rarity. We got down and ran towards the empty rakes in the Mulund yard as if there was no tomorrow. On display were 3 WCAM3's and 1WCAG1 with Haridwar-LTT, Holiday Spl, and 2 unknown expresses. After sufficing ourselves with the snaps we marched back to Nahur to catch the next CST bound DC EMU and finally got down at VVH at 15:00. We did spot the Sinhagad to Pune in between Ghatkopar and Vikhroli. Met with the Video-man of IRFCA, Arzan Kotwal. This was my first meeting with him and was equally pleased to meet Deep Soni, Sriram S and Tushar Dhake. The sun was blazing down with all its prowess. We saw a freight negotiating turnouts out of the VVH freight yard into the mainline, which meant, the goods trains will have to continue using the mainlines for now and only the mail/express trains bound for LTT would use the new lines. As it was very hot, Arzan and yours truly volunteered to backpack 6 bottles of mineral water for the gruesome afternoon ahead. After the freight train cleared the points, we went straight to the new lines. Deep and others explained that new lines will open shortly as there was an announcement over the Public Address System(PAS) to all railways personnel to clear the tracks. At 15:10, the same train which I had spotted at TNA , the 13201 Rajendra-nagar -LTT approached VVH on the 6th new lines, slowly and steadily. Coincidentally, we witnessed the Rajendra Nagar-CST Superfast doing a parallel run on the UP fast lines. What a moment!!
The Loco Pilot of Rajendra Nagar-LTT honked in all glory as the WCAM3 came to a halt near the new Section controlling cabin at VVH. After a short ceremony which included garlanding, coconut breaking and photo-ops with media-men, it slowly crawled up the 6th line into LTT. Next to follow was Coimbatore-LTT hauled by the majestic WDP4 #20031. This train waited at the outer for an eternity. Now we were all waiting with baited breath for the first train out of LTT on the new lines as it was scheduled to leave at 15:40. At 15:50 arrived the WCAM3 #21897 hauling Godan Express out of LTT.

Again the ceremony was repeated and we congratulated each other on the successful commisioning of the new lines. We were gulping down water every few minutes as the sun was very strong and dehyrdating us. We were also sweating profusely but nobody really cared.

The freight lines will have to be connected to the new lines in a few weeks from now, to free up the 3rd-4th line between TNA-CST of freights. At 16:00 we saw Sainagar-Shirdi passing on the Up fast lines. Sewagram Express to Nagpur also sped past us in full glory at VVH. Now we decided to catch up with some high speed action on the new lines. It was time to meet Rajendra Aklekkar at Bhandup. We went back to VVH pf 1 and took an EMU to Bhandup. The forced ventilation provided us with much needed respite from heat. As we were returning to Bhandup, a steady stream of Expresses and empty rakes started on the 6th Line. Empty rakes of Kushinagar Express, Haridwar-LTT AC S/F, followed by Shalimar and Hatia Express with a lot of commuters inside. This was followed by Samrasta Express from Howrah. Rajendra showed us a fantastic spot to catch high speed action. As the signal on the 5th line turned green we took over the vantage positions to capture the LTT- Darbhanga Express raising a dust storm as it went past us at a good speed.

Next on the agenda was Nandigram Express on the 3rd line, but we were pleasantly surprised to see a WCAM3 hauled Holiday Special blasting past us, prior to it. In the meanwhile Chappra-LTT hauled by yet another WCAM3 crawled and grind-ed to a halt on the 6th lines. As we were expecting the Udyog Nagari(Sultanpur) express on 5th line and our view being blocked, we decided to stand on the safer loop line between 6th and 5th line at Bhandup. Now with no more trains expected on the new lines we decided to meet Harshad Joshi and Abhishek Rishbud at Mulund yard. Again a first time for me. After alighting at Mulund pf 1 , we walked all the way towards the yard on the new lines with enough safety precautions. As we met them and exchanged pleasantries, Deccan Queen hauled by WCAM3 sped past us at 17:35. The new line again saw some action with Muzaffarpur-LTT special. An RPF warned us to stay away from the tracks, hence we went up the Apna Bazaar FOB and captured 06346 Netravathi Express from Trivandrum bound for LTT going at a relatively slow speed and coming to a halt further behind a Erode WDM3D 11110.

Abhishek dropped us at Mulund Station East in his new Maruti Alto, rechristened as WAG9C. He showed us a white label in his car with a Tagline ' MPS=80kmph', much to our amusement...so..like a railfan... We got down at Mulund pf 3 and took a Semifast to Kalyan. Thus bringing to an end to a wonderful day of railfanning. My long cherished dream of spotting the inuagural run was accomplished. Next on the agenda is 5th-6th lines between Diva and Thane. I hope, I don't have to wait for another decade to see that.

Thanks a lot for the patient reading.